POHLY: Bret Bielema exit latest Big Ten embarrassment

New Arkansas coach Bret Bielema speaks during a college football news conference in Fayetteville, Ark., Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2012. Bielema, who will be paid $3.2 million annually for six years, replaces interim coach John L. Smith, who was hired after Bobby Petrino was fired in April. (AP Photo/April L. Brown)

Bret Bielema won’t coach Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl after leading the Badgers to the prestigious college football event.

He’s a lucky man.

Not only is Bielema going to make a pile of money in his new job as coach at Arkansas, he will be spared watching the Badgers try to uphold the pride of the Big Ten when Wisconsin plays Stanford on New Year’s Day.

Did we mention pride?

Big Ten football has little of it these days.

Bielema’s decision to leave a program he guided to three consecutive Rose Bowl games was the latest slap in the Big Ten’s face.

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Going to Arkansas? Huh?

The money – there will be a lot of it – aside, Bielema’s move is at best a lateral one.

In Madison, he had a program that could compete for the Big Ten championship, and post an occasional victory over the likes of Ohio State and Penn State.

In Fayetteville, Bielema must compete with the likes of LSU, Alabama and Texas A&M – and that’s just in the West Division of the Southeastern Conference.

Who awaits from the SEC East to steal Bielema’s lunch? Oh, only the likes of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.

Good luck, Bret.

So Bielema thinks coaching at a middling SEC school is a better gig than at a Big Ten power?

Has the Big Ten’s shine weathered that much?

Give Bielema this: He is divorcing himself from one red-faced conference.

Big Ten teams are scheduled to play in seven bowls this post-season. Not one Big Ten team is favored.

Michigan State, a 1 1/2-point underdog to Texas Christian on some boards, is the closest thing the Big Ten has to a favorite.

No. 19 Michigan – yes, 8-4 Michigan – is the Big Ten’s highest-ranked team not on probation in the latest Associated Press poll.

Ohio State is No. 3, but the Buckeyes, who ran afoul of the NCAA while Jim Tressel was in charge, can’t go to a bowl, and aren’t ranked at all in the coaches poll, despite a 12-0 record.

Neither Ohio State nor Penn State, which finished second to the Buckeyes in the Leaders Division, could play in the Big Ten championship game because both are serving NCAA penalties.

So five-loss Wisconsin played Legends Division champ Nebraska for the right to go to the Rose Bowl.

The Cornhuskers apparently thought the game was defense-optional. Theirs was gashed, and Wisconsin won 70-31.